Ladies' Choice
by Triscribe
Summary: "Wait, are- are you going after that thing?" Artemis asked, her eyes lighting up. "Because if you're going, I'm going." She and Zatanna turned to look Aquagirl expectantly. Tula sighed, but grinned as well. "If we get in trouble for this, I will definitely be blaming the two of you." (AKA a Team Roleswap AU; Season One Re-write)
1. Chapter 1

_New Orleans_

 _July 4th, 12:00 EDT_

Faust cursed his luck. Bad enough his contact had fled before handing over the tome so desperately desired by the dark sorcerer, but now the unlucky villain had managed to attract the attention of-

"Sepor dnib sih teef!"

-Zatara and his brat.

Enchanted cords sprouted around Faust's ankles and pulled tight, but before they could catch him completely, he muttered a counter-curse, and turned his would-be bindings to wisps of smoke. Distracted by that, however, he didn't hear or see the mystical wall being formed directly in front of him. Faust ended up running face-first into it, and promptly fell to the ground, out cold.

A man and teenage girl dropped down beside him, their rune disks dissipating. "Well done, Zatanna." The elder magician smiled at his daughter. "Though I doubt our foe will be taken by such surprise again."

"Aw, c'mon Dad, you know I'll be able to nab Faust with something else." She grinned up at him. "Now come on and truss him up, we've got to get going! Today is the day!"

 _Star City_

 _July 4th, 9:21 PDT_

Cars swerved and passengers screamed as the cables and walkway railings along the bridge came to life, rising upwards only to spear down fast as lighting. Standing in the middle of the central lane, Wizard smiled grimly at the chaos he caused.

A split second tingling at the back of his neck was all the warning the magic user needed in order to step aside, deftly avoiding the boxing glove arrow that sailed past him. Unfortunately, that single step took him straight into the path of a second specialized arrow. Struck square between the shoulders, Wizard stumbled forward, nearly falling to his hands and knees. He remained upright, however, and turned to glare at his attackers.

Two figures were standing further down the length of the bridge, while a third was flipping towards him. Muttering an incantation, he shot a blast of fel magic at the approaching hero, only for her to dodge at the last second. A pair of arrows then thudded into the pavement by Wizard's feet, exploding before he had time to transmute them into something else.

Longshot landed in a crouch by the unconscious villain, huffing in disappointment as she flicked her long black ponytail back over her shoulder. "Aw, you guys could've let me at least punch him once."

"Sorry, sis." The younger girl smirked, approaching with their mentor. "Not our fault your first arrow missed him by a mile."

"Easy now, ladies - if you _really_ want, I suppose we could wait for him to wake up so we can go a second round." Green Arrow chuckled at the pair of horrified looks he received.

"No freakin' way!" Longshot protested, Arrowette nodding vigorously in agreement.

"Yeah, come on GA, today is the day!"

 _Pearl Harbor_

 _July 4th, 6:02 HST_

Snarling, Circe hurled multiple bolts of energy at her opponents, none of them connecting with the pair of agile Atlanteans. Aquaman summoned a massive wave to rise up over the edge of the ship, forcing the ancient sorceress to turn her attention to deflecting the deluge away from herself. When the woman next looked back, a slim teenager was nearly upon her.

"Incoming!" Aquagirl grinned, twirling as she avoided one final spell before delivering a knockout punch to Circe's jaw. The woman dropped like a stone, and Aquaman nodded approvingly as he approached his protege.

"That was well done. And?" He crossed his arms and gave her an expectant look.

Laughing, the teen gave her agreement. "Alright, yes, I am excited. Today _is_ the day."

 _Hall of Justice, Washington DC_

 _July 4th, 14:00 EDT_

Alone in the rear security room of the Hall, Batman allowed himself to release a sigh as his colleagues and their sidekicks approached on the monitor screens. Beside her king, Tula held her head high and proud, but the young Atlantean's eyes nonetheless danced with excitement. Zatara's daughter, Zatanna, appeared more openly ecstatic, even exchanging a few teasing remarks with the younger of Green Arrow's students. Of those two, Jade kept her building anticipation under a firm shield, while Artemis was practically skipping as they got closer and closer to the Hall.

Batman's scrutiny switched to another screen to witness the girls' reactions as they first set foot inside the League's public headquarters, and couldn't help the slight smirk as each one paused to gape up at the massive statues of the Founders.

He'd been one of several to protest these four joining the world of superheroics at such an early age, but in the years since had come to accept that each of the teens had proven their usefulness. A second Atlantean to put on weather curbing duty during natural disasters certainly didn't hurt, as well as the alert Zatanna had once called in to her father about an ambush some members of the League were about to walk into (when asked about it later, she admitted to using a scrying spell in order to keep tabs on her dad). Even the headstrong Crock sisters once went and shut down what could've been a nuclear meltdown, scraped up but proudly sitting atop Girder's unconscious body by the time their mentor and a few other League members showed up.

Now, the group of four were getting their first inside look at the headquarters of the Justice League.

...Or at least, what the world _thought_ was the League's headquarters.

Sighing once more, Batman stood and made his way towards the briefing room where the teens and their mentors would be arriving. Along the way, he met up with Flash and Superman, each of whom were grinning in anticipation, though the latter was also uneasy about something.

"I still think it would've been a good idea for me to bring-"

"No, Kent." Batman growled at the Kryptonian. " _You_ set the three month training period. It lasts for one more week, and _then_ you get to introduce him to the others."

"Fine, fine," the other hero rolled his eyes, Flash snickering behind them. "I don't know why I decided on such a long period in the first place..."

"Because you were still suspicious at first. Doesn't mean you get to change your mind now." By then, they'd reached the briefing room, and the subject was dropped. A few moments later, the opposite doors slid open, and the group of three adults and four teens entered.

Not five minutes later, everyone was staring in shocked silence as Longshot stalked back out, her forest green hat crumpled on the floor where it had been thrown.

Hesitantly, Arrowette moved to pick it up, being careful to avoid looking Green Arrow in the eye - she honestly didn't want to know how much pain her adopted father was bearing at the moment. He attempted to say something, to put an end to the awkward silence Jade's outburst and departure had caused, only for the computer to chime with an incoming message.

Superman was the first to pull up the alert, frowning as he did so. "Looks like planetary scanners have picked up something closing in on Earth - huh. Can't tell if it's a vessel or a high energy meteor-" Before the Kryptonian could go on, a second chime sounded. This time it was Icon, calling for a full League response to a small army of ice and weather-based villains turning New York City into their own private Arctic Zone.

"Stay put," Zatara said as he and the others headed for the door leading to the zeta tubes.

"What?" His daughter exclaimed. "Why?!"

"This is a League mission," Aquaman said, not unkindly.

"You're not trained-"

"Since when!"

Green Arrow gave his younger partner a pained look. "I meant you haven't been trained to be part of _this_ team." He gestured to himself and the other League members, ignoring Arrowette's outrage.

"There will be other missions, when you're ready."

"But for now-"

"Stay. Put." Batman's blunt order from the doorway had a greater effect on the girls than Zatara reiterating his previous statement. As the adults headed out, the Dark Knight shot a glance at the subdued Man of Steel.

"Now are you glad you didn't bring you-know-who?" He muttered.

Superman sighed. "I suppose so."

Alone in the briefing room, the trio of teens exchanged baffled and irritated looks.

"...I don't know about you guys, but I'm really starting to wish I'd left with my sister."

Aquagirl sighed at Arrowette's words. "Too late now. We seem to be stuck waiting until the League returns."

"Maybe not," Zatanna murmured, looking at the computer screen speculatively. "Laever ot em tsap egami." An illusion shimmered into being, displaying the map that projected where the UFO would be crashing down to Earth.

"Wait, are- are you going after that thing?" Arrowette asked, her eyes lighting up. "Because if you're going, I'm going." The two younger teens turned to look Aquagirl expectantly.

She sighed, but grinned as well. "If we get in trouble for this, I will definitely be blaming the two of you."

"Perfectly acceptable!"

"Blame away!"

And so, the three girls headed for the Hall's zeta tube...

 _Montana_

 _July 4th, 12:37 PDT_

"I'm starting to think we took a wrong turn," Arrowette groaned, jogging up to the top of yet another wooded ridge in order to join the others. Aquagirl didn't even seem winded by their numerous climbs through the region, while Zatanna had just used her little pentagram hover-disks whenever she needed a breather - something that the panting archer felt more than a little miffed by.

"On the contrary, 'Ettie," Aquagirl said. "We're here."

And sure enough, in the little valley below them, a rather worse for wear spaceship had crashed and carved out a long trench through the earth.


	2. Chapter 2

_Montana_

 _July 4th, 12:41 PDT_

"Hello?" Arrowette banged a fist against the side of the spaceship as she called out. "Anybody home?"

"What _is_ this thing?" Aquagirl wondered aloud, touching the side of the red and black vessel a bit more gingerly. It was made from either the strangest metal she'd ever encountered or another material entirely.

"Uh, girls? I don't think we were the first people to get here..." The archer and Atlantean hurried around to the other side of the ship, where Zatanna crouched before a churned up mess of dirt and brush. While that _could_ have been excused as part of the crash, the disassembled pieces of shotgun and hunting rifle didn't exactly fit the narrative.

"Great, just what we needed, locals making our job harder," Arrowette huffed. Nonetheless, she started pacing around the perimeter of the scene, grey eyes scanning the ground for further clues. Zatanna, in the meantime, called upon her magic.

"Laever ot em ruoy srenwo," she murmured. Hazy images appeared over the ruined guns, depicting a pair of young men who looked scared out of their minds as they stared up at the ship.

Aquagirl frowned.

Glancing between Zatanna's spell construct and the crashed vessel, she hummed consideringly. Then, the red-haired Atlantean jumped.

"Uhh, what are you doing?" The smaller girl twisted in place to stare up at her on the ship's roof.

"Investigating," Aquagirl called back down. "And I found the entrance. Arrowette, get over here!"

As the archer jogged back, she gestured over her shoulder towards the treeline. "Whoever these guys were, the tracks look like they hightailed it out of here without anything following them." She took Zatanna's offered hand, and the magician used a rune-disk to lift them up after Aquagirl.

"That's something, at least," their older friend muttered, glancing back down at the circular hole in the top of the ship - no lid on hinges or other mechanical method of closing it that she could see. "Though it does likely mean that whoever or _what_ ever scared them off is still inside."

"Oh. Goody."

"Should... should we call the League?" Zatanna glanced between the others, saw their matching reluctance, and squared her own shoulders. "Right. We're doing this ourselves."

"At least until we know one way or another if there are hostiles," Aquagirl reassured her. That said, the Atlantean took the lead by jumping down the hatch, followed by both younger girls.

They landed in what appeared to be an observation deck, with several seats spaced around the out-looking windows and a raised platform in the center. Zatanna performed a quick scanning spell to make sure they were alone, while Arrowette poked one of the seats and Aquagirl headed for the back wall.

"Well, that's disconcerting," the magician mumbled after a moment. "Something must be throwing my magic off, I think I'm getting a reading off the ship itself..."

"Any way you can analyze what the heck this stuff is?" Her friend asked, substituting her finger for an arrowhead to continue poking at the odd material of the seat. The blonde nearly shrieked when jabbing a little more forcefully resulted in the stuff _moving,_ waving a tendril at her before seamlessly blending back into itself. " _Whoa."_

"Okay," Zatanna breathed, leaning over her shoulder with wide eyes. "That was _so_ not normal."

"Neither is this." They both straightened to look over at Aquagirl. The older girl had each hand pressed to the wall, eyes glowing with electric power. With a faint whine that almost sounded like an animal in pain, the wall trembled, and gradually an arched opening rippled into existence. With a toss of her head, Aquagirl ordered both younger girls through it, before releasing her power and stepping through as well. The wall swiftly closed behind them, leaving no sign there'd ever been an opening at all.

"Whatever this ship is," Aquagirl said, staring back at it with a narrowed gaze, "It's alive."

-L'sC-

 _Pain_

 _-coming in too fast, heat building, too much too much, tired, hurt, shut everything down, hibernation mode, calm down calm down we'll survive this we HAVE to-_

 _Impact_

 _-hurts so much, still burning, broken, get up get up, run maintenance checks, set up healing mode, help her, please, make the pain stop, so foggy, can't think straight-_

 _Intruders_

 _-float upwards, can barely open the exterior hatch, can't maintain a coherent form-_

 _PAIN_

 _INJURY_

 _ENEMIES_

 _-scare them, scare them away, rip apart their weapons, send them fleeing, LEAVE US ALONE, get back inside get back inside, bleeding, have to stop the bleeding, have to get the bits of metal out, bullets, they're called bullets, get thEM OUT HURTS HURTS HURTS-_

 _Quiet_

 _Stillness_

 _...new intruders..._

 _-wake up, get up, they're coming, can't let them, can't let them shoot again-_

 _-three this time, different than before, they're INSIDE-_

 _-hide hide hide hide-_

 _-they sense you, they hear you, they're coming, no no no, hurt them first, blast them, go inside their minds and TAKE THEM DOWN-_

 _-open a side hatch, get them out, quickly, quickly, ignore the pain, need to be alone-_

 _Mob_

 _-too many, too many enemies, shooting, stop the bullets, don't let them hit, no more, please, go away, too many to scare-_

 _Fire_

 _FLAMES_

 _ **BURNING**_

"AAAAHHHH!"

-L'sC-

Someone groaned.

Bleary, feeling like her head was full of cotton, Zatanna blinked her eyes open. Shifting in place, it only took a moment to notice and recognize the sensation of ropes binding her ankles together and securing her arms behind her back. Second to this came the realization she'd been gagged, too.

Growling, the girl shook her head to try and dislodge some of the fogginess, but only succeeded in sending beads of sweat flying. Whatever room she'd been imprisoned within was blisteringly hot, and had she been able, Zatanna would have called up a cool breeze to help with the discomfort.

Another groan came from behind her, along with movement against her bound arms. Zatanna guessed that she been tied to one of her friends, an assumption proven correct with Arrowette's familiar voice suddenly muttering a selection of choice curse words.

"Mmf thff rrf," she tried to agree, growling again when the words didn't come out _remotely_ right.

"Zee? You okay?"

"Mm-hm."

"Gag?"

"Grr."

Arrowette snickered, shifting again as she tested the ropes. "Well, at least you're awake. Looks like Aquagirl's still out cold - er, out hot, maybe? Geez, it feels like a sauna in here."

Zatanna made another affirmative noise, craning her neck in order to study their surroundings. Plain stone walls and ceiling, concrete floor, what looked like a heavy steel door... and a security camera in the corner, pointed right at them. The magician narrowed her eyes at it.

A few moments later, she heard muted footsteps approaching, and then a scraping sound as the door was unlocked. Behind her, Arrowette stilled.

Two men entered the room and approached. One of them, decked out in more military gear than a Special Ops agent, stepped close enough to grab the ropes connecting the two girls and yank them upright into sitting positions. The other, dressed a tad more plainly with only a single rifle and sidearm overtop dark plainclothes, moved out of Zatanna's range of vision, presumably to check on Aquagirl.

"Hey, Marine-wannabes," Arrowette spoke up. "Any chance we could get the thermostat turned down in here? I realize this is Montana, but it's also _July_ for crying out loud."

Neither of the men replied. They moved to stand at a parade rest, just as a woman walked in the open door.

"I do apologize for the less than stellar accommodations, but we aren't exactly in the habit of catering to alien spies." She came to a stop beside them, and Zatanna's first impression was simply the words _intimidation personified._ The woman was even taller than the more heavily-armed of the two men, and while she didn't carry any visible weapons, the almost palpable aura of confidence around her indicated none were needed.

"...wow," Arrowette said, "You've got biceps almost as big as Wonder Woman's. You a fan?"

Zatanna wished she were still laying down, so as to be able to smack her head against the concrete floor.

The woman above them smirked. "Well, you've certainly got the snark of a teenager down pat. I have to wonder, though, how long you've been studying humanity in order to mimic one of our children so thoroughly?"

Blinking, Zatanna stared at her with an incredulous expression. "Wrf nn nffns!"

"Uh, we aren't aliens," Arrowette repeated.

"Sure you aren't," the woman said, crouching down so she could pat them both on the head. "And I suppose that monstrosity you were meeting with is a storybook fairy, hm?"

It took Zatanna a minute to recall what she was talking about-

" _Look out-" Aquagirl tried to stand in front of them, but the huge white thing wasn't attacking physically - it felt like her brain was suddenly doused in freezing water, too cold to think, too numb to respond-_

-and when the memories presented themselves, she felt more than a little ill.

"Look, lady, we don't know _what_ the heck that thing was, but it's clearly dangerous. So, why don't you untie us, and we can call the Justice League-"

The woman threw her head back, laughing. Eyes wide, Zatanna turned to look at the two men standing guard, and didn't like the way they were smirking.

"Oh, you _are_ a bold one," their main captor finally said. "But don't think we aren't aware the League has been watching us - why else send you three to meet with that thing practically in our backyard, but as a warning? Well, we'll send back a warning shot of our own: Godwatch will not be intimidated."

She stood then, gesturing to the pair of guards. "Get the charcoal. I want video of them revealing their true forms before we carry out the executions." Turning to go, she took all of three steps towards the door before a band of water curled around her feet, yanking them back and sending her crashing to the ground.

One of the men tried to run to her side, only for Zatanna to throw her legs out and trip him up as well. Behind her, Arrowette finished tearing into the rope cords with the miniature razors kept hidden in the fabric of her gloves. As soon as their bonds gave way, the pair scrambled to their feet, Zatanna yanking the gag from her mouth as Arrowette jumped to help Aquagirl hold off the remaining guard.

"Esuf rieht sehtolc ot dnib meht ni ecalp!" The magician yelled, casting both hands towards the pair rising from the floor. Pants legs melded together, and sleeves fused to torsos, trapping both of them. Zatanna turned to do the same to the third wackjob, but a roundhouse kick from Arrowette took him down just fine.

"Now aren't you glad I made you binge-watch that Avatar show with us?" The archer laughed, clapping Aquagirl on the shoulder.

Their older friend smiled back tiredly, unwinding the last of the chains that had been wrapped around her limbs. "I do admit, the sweat-bending episode was an inspiration."

"Don't congratulate yourselves just yet," the woman on the floor growled. "There are dozens of my soldiers in this compound - you'll never get out alive."

Zatanna sighed, muttering a spell to gag her. She did the same to the guards as well, then tied up the third one before dropping them all in a pile out of sight of the security camera. "Much as I hate to say it, she's right - we've got to get out of here before patting ourselves on the back."

Padding silently, Aquagirl moved to the open doorway and peered out of it. "I don't see any other guards - we're in the middle of a hallway. There's another door to our left, and intersections at both ends, but that's it."

"Security cameras?"

"None that I can see," Aquagirl said after a moment. "Perhaps they are an underfunded extremist group."

"More likely they've just got their internal security focused somewhere else," Arrowette muttered, joining her. "I need to find my weapons, or I'm gonna be next to useless."

"I dunno, you hit plenty hard," Zatanna pointed out. "But while we're on the subject... ediug em ot eht wob fo etteworra." A green light sprang from her outstretched hand, bouncing in place a couple times before it darted left. The girls followed, Aquagirl swinging the steel door shut behind them. As they passed the second door in the hall, however, she slowed, staring at it.

"Uh, Aquagirl?"

"It's warmer here," she murmured.

"So?"

The Atlantean didn't reply, instead grabbing at the locked handle. Straining, she pulled the entire thing free, dropping it to the ground as a wave of heat swept out. The younger girls got to her side in time to keep the taller teenager from falling as well, and all three of them stared in horror at the scene inside.

Multiple bonfires and lines of burning charcoal were laid throughout the room, surrounding the monster they'd encountered on the freaky spaceship. Its white skin looked even more shriveled than earlier, stick-like limbs pulled in close and bound in heavy chains.

As they stared, it shuddered, dull red eyes turning in their direction. Zatanna shivered at the sensation of a touch to her psyche, similar to the intrusion that had knocked her unconscious aboard the ship even if it was far weaker.

 _*Help... please...*_

"Guys," Arrowette started to protest. A second touch came after the first, sharing emotion rather than speech: guilt, sorrow, terror and panic.

"Set me down," Aquagirl rasped, a determined expression on her face despite the dry heat sapping her strength. The other girls did as she ordered, and stood back when bands of light started to glow on the Atlantean's arms and torso. Deep beneath them, something rumbled.

Within the room, stone began the shake, then crack. Little, pressurized sprays of water started to appear, hitting the fires and sending steam curling everywhere. Aquagirl yelled in her native tongue, and the little sprays turned into full-on waterspouts.

As soon as enough flames were doused, Zatanna and Arrowette ran forward together. The archer kicked away the remaining coals while her friend used a spell to dissolve the chains. Once the monster was free, they tucked themselves under its long arms, supporting most of its weight as the creature started to slowly shuffle forwards.

Aquagirl stood up as they approached, letting the tattoos of light fade along with her spell. "Are you alright?"

 _*I, will be. Thank, you.*_

"Think you're up to helping us get out of here, seeing as you're kinda responsible for getting us into this mess anyway?"

"Ettie!"

"What?"

 _*I'm sorry,*_ the monster said inside their heads, its mental voice sounding genuinely remorseful. _*I'll help in any way I can.*_

"Thank you. I am Aquagirl, and these are Arrowette and Zatanna. What is your name?"

 _*My name is M'gann Morzz, but...*_ Muscle and bone began to shift, as white turned green, and previously unnoticed bands of red material expanded. In moments, where a disturbing creature had loomed over them was instead a slender, green-skinned girl of comparable height wearing a blue cloak and black suit with red edging. "...you can call me Miss Martian."


End file.
